Mortgage Mess Movies

On Saturday Mrs. K and I decided to watch a movie with little brother K. We looked through all of the new releases available on Dish Network (it's not mine, I swear! I feel like a high schooler whose mom found weed in the sock drawer). In the end we streamed with Netflix because we would have had to pay with Dish Network. After looking through them all, one had my attention. Margin Call. It sounded like a movie about investing and who doesn't look forward to a good investing movie? Well as it turns out Mrs. K and little bro K, to name two people. Luckily for me, one of the leading roles was played by Zachary Quinto, former star of Heroes which you'll see is included on our Netflix List. Between him and Kevin Spacey, I had enough firepower to convince Mrs. K and bro K that we should give it a shot.

I'm sure glad we did. Turns out Margin Call was about the '07-'08 financial crisis. Specifically, it is a high suspense reenactment of the 24-hour period when a financial company (loosely based on Lehman Brothers) discovers that the party is about to end. Having never read much about the '07-'08 financial crisis (I was busy buying and enjoying my first house), I found this movie to be a very interesting watch. If you're looking for someone to hate, or at least really really dislike, for the meltdown that ensued it gives you that. At the same time, it makes you sympathize with some of the other characters that seemed to be caught in the middle. Multiple times Mrs. K expressed feeling sorry for them and I have to admit I did a little bit too. However, when you hear some of the salaries, that sorrow quickly leaves. In the end, it's a very thought provoking movie that we give two thumbs up. Those thumbs are mine and Mrs. K's. Little brother K's thumb was playing games on his laptop the whole time so he does not get to judge. The movie also left us wanting to learn more about the entire mess.

So that's what we did. Mrs. K and I scoured Netflix on Sunday for streaming documentaries about the mortgage meltdown and came across The Flaw. Definitely another film I highly recommend watching. It looks back over history to attempt to determine what was the cause of the collapse. It's filled with crazy smart people (that's "really smart", not "smart but I wear underpants on my head"), as well as average homeowners that are facing foreclosure. While Margin Call makes you feel a little more sympathetic, this will bring a little more of the fury. It looks at things like predatory lending, the overuse of credit and the ever increasing income gap between the highest of the high and everyone else. If you are interested in knowing what set up the housing bubble and its burst, this film is for you. If you aren't, watch it anyway because there are plenty of other financial lessons throughout it.

Have you watched or read anything about the '07-'08 crisis that you would recommend?